If you preach, you know the pressure of making your sermons awesome.

But it's not just your content that has to be impeccable.

Your delivery has to be at an expert level as well.

You simply "must" be:

-engaging but not too confrontational
-humorous but not glib
-biblical but not a seminary lesson
-entertaining but still substantive
-thorough but not long-winded.

Easy peasy right?

Recently a pastor wrote an article sharing why he has decided to leave pastoral ministry for good.

His article went viral as so many people resonated with his sentiments on the pressures, stresses and unrealistic expectations pastors face.

One of the expectations he lists is Professional Speaker. In this episode, we'll dive into that expectation to see how to manage it without losing our minds in the process.

When we preach, we need one thing from our listeners in order to get our message across to them: their attention.

If they are not listening, the message is not making an impact.

This is why building tension in the beginning of your message is so important. It signals to the listener that the message is worth listening to.

There are many ways to approach tension building, but in this episode I'm going to show you the best way.

Recently I received a question from a subscriber who asked me about how to move from preaching messages with multiple points to preaching one-point messages.

I love this question because it begs another question: Why would you want to preach a one-point message?

In this episode, we'll explore how to prepare and preach a one-point message as well as why it can be a great way to go!

If you've ever watched a video of yourself preaching, you've probably noticed some things you're doing that are distracting to your listeners.

All of us could use some coaching in this area. When I look back through videos of my sermons I notice more distracting tendencies than I care to admit!

But there is hope and we can all overcome these by knowing what they are and working to eliminate them.

In part two of this series, I want to offer five common distractions I’ve observed in preachers over the years. For each one I'll give simple solutions to correct them so that your messages are as distraction-free as possible!

Every preacher has physical tendencies that unintentionally distract the audience. Sometimes these are known by the preacher and other times they are ticks and habits that must be pointed out to be changed.

All of us could use some coaching in this area. When I look back through videos of my sermons I notice more distracting tendencies than I care to admit!

But there is hope and we can all overcome these by knowing what they are and working to eliminate them.

In this episode, I want to offer five common distractions I’ve observed in preachers over the years. For each one I'll give simple solutions to correct them so that your messages are as distraction-free as possible!

A few years into my preaching ministry, I began to be intrigued with this idea: What if I could train myself to not need notes when I preach?

What if I could prepare in such a way that I could deliver a message and never look down, but maintain eye contact and physical engagement with my listeners from start to finish?

What if you could, too?

In part two of this series, we'll dive into more of how to train ourselves to not look at our notes when we preach.

We’ve all seen this happen. The preacher walks up to the stage with a Bible, some pieces of paper, and a binder. He spends the first few seconds placing everything on the podium. While he’s doing this the audience is mostly looking at the top of his head as he looks down.

As he begins speaking he reads from one piece of paper, looks up, finds another one in his binder, reads it, looks up again, and then looks down for his next idea. Aside from the sloppiness and the seemingly un-prepared vibe this gives off – it also risks not engaging the audience.

Let’s contrast that scenario with the preacher who gets up on stage and speaks with clarity and command of the room, engages everyone with eye contact and energy, and you never see him look down, fumble through pages, or read from anything but the Bible.

From a communications perspective, the preacher in our first scenario is far less likely to connect with his listeners. He is missing a vital aspect of capturing...

It amazes me the insights and wisdom available to us in great preaching books. My preaching ministry has benefited vastly from some of the books I've read on the topic. I’ve pulled together the books that have impacted my preaching the most.

Each one of these books will help you improve your preaching in distinct ways. I love all of them for different reasons, and my copies are all marked up. In this episode, I'm sharing my list of the best 5 books on preaching.

Every time we preach we have an opportunity to fulfill our God-given calling to impact lives with the truth of God’s Word and the hope of the gospel. But the effectiveness of our preaching is impacted by a host of variables we cannot control, including distractions in the room.

But there is something we can control, and that is how well we prepare.

I find one of the most often neglected aspects of effective sermon preparation is rehearsing the sermon.

By rehearsing I mean preaching the entire message by yourself (or to a handful of people) before you actually preach the sermon to your church.

The reluctance to rehearse is varied. Some preachers might think it’s awkward to preach to themselves. They’re totally right, by the way. It is awkward, but that does not mean you shouldn’t do it. Other preachers might avoid it because they don’t think it’s necessary. Still others may have just never thought of it.

In this episode, I will show you why I...

You make points in every sermon you preach. You try to communicate at least one point. One idea. One bottom line.

You may have one major point but a number of supporting points. The point is, you make points. Get the point?

So, what do you do with every point you make? Is it enough just to say the words. “My main point is _________. Okay, let’s close in prayer.” Well, we both know that would be insufficient.

We have to do more than just say a point for it to stick. But how do we do this? How do we develop sticky points that land on people in powerful ways?

If you find that your points are not getting across the way you want, it might be that they're missing three key ingredients. In this episode, we are going to dive into the three things you must do with every point you make in your sermons.